What happens when a few dozen people take small amounts of psychedelics?

6 months ago

Science is beginning to show that some forms of psychedelics might be able to help calm people’s anxieties and lift people out of depression. In places like Silicon Valley, some people are taking small amounts of psychedelics, a practice known as “microdosing,” to try to help their productivity.

A new study suggests that microdosing magic mushrooms can boost creativity. The study was done by a research team based in the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic, using a few dozen attendees at an event organized by the Psychedelic Society of the Netherlands.

“Our results suggest that consuming a microdose of truffles allowed participants to create more out-of-the-box alternative solutions to a problem,” the authors write in the study, according to The Atlantic.

The study is interesting, but it is probably worth waiting for clearer data, The Atlantic suggests. Some experts, like Matthew Johnson, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University who has researched psychedelics, thinks the results were driven by other factors, like the placebo effect.